[Romoman]

Hi All - I just bought a K100D and took some pictures of motorsports (ALMS at Limerock). I got some good photos, but noticed that using the Sports option on the Moving Object mode on the dial, the camera went to really fast shutter speeds (1/4000). I ended up using the Tv option and using around a 1/250 shutter speed to get a nice motion blur in the background.

Will the Moving Object mode always end up with really fast shutter speeds? I'm new to photography, so did I do the right thing?

Thanks,

Matt

[Entropy]

I have a K10D and not a K100D, the K10D doesn't have the "scene mode" options, but it would make sense that a "sports" scene mode tries for the highest shutter speed that it can. The point of that mode is probably to freeze action - if you want motion blur while panning, you likely want to start using one of the "less automatic" modes, which is what you wound up doing. You've learned your first photography lesson.

[SpecialK]

It has been a while since I used the sports mode, but it only bumped the shutter a couple stops as I recall. What ISO were you at?

[Romoman]

The photo was at 1600 ISO. It was at 300 mm focal length with a shutter speed of 1/3000, F9.5. Was the ISO too high? I've noticed that you always here about the appeture / shutter speed trade off, but ISO makes a difference too, correct?

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Last edited by Romoman; 07-08-2007 at 07:56 PM.

[SpecialK]

The photo was at 1600 ISO. It was at 300 mm focal length with a shutter speed of 1/3000, F9.5. Was the ISO too high? I've noticed that you always here about the appeture / shutter speed trade off, but ISO makes a difference too, correct?

That makes sense. I use ISO 200, putting the shutter in the 1/500 range.

Yeah, ISO make the difference. Here's a refresher:

ISO determines the sensitivity of the sensor. Low ISO means less sensitive which requires a longer shutter speed or larger aperture and has less "noise" or grainy look. High ISO means more sensitive to light and requires a faster shutter speed or smaller aperture and has more grain.

So, at that high ISO and in sports mode, the camera is biased toward a very high shutter speed.

[WMBP]

Hi All - I just bought a K100D and took some pictures of motorsports (ALMS at Limerock). I got some good photos, but noticed that using the Sports option on the Moving Object mode on the dial, the camera went to really fast shutter speeds (1/4000). I ended up using the Tv option and using around a 1/250 shutter speed to get a nice motion blur in the background.

Will the Moving Object mode always end up with really fast shutter speeds? I'm new to photography, so did I do the right thing?

Matt,

You've already gotten some good answers, especially from the always helpful Mr SpecialK. Yes, sports mode assumes you want to freeze the action, so it tries to find the fastest shutter speed possible. I suspect you had the ISO set to Auto; I don't think sports mode would set it to 1600 on purpose. But I can't test as I don't have a K100D any more.

Anyway, the 2cents I want to add to what has been said already is just this: forget about the scene modes and get to know the primary modes on your camera. It's easy to do, and you'll enjoy your photography a LOT more if you use the DSLR as God intended - to take control of the photos you take. As you've discovered, the scene modes make a whole bunch of assumptions about what you want, and those assumptions are quite often NOT correct.

Don't be scared of the main modes: P, Tv, Av and even M. Read the users manual, then give it a try. Got a question, just ask! Everybody here loves easy questions.

I do congratulate you for jumping over to Tv (shutter priority) mode. Looks like you have sound instincts. Anyway, get out with the camera now and take a bunch of photos - you can throw 'em away, it doesn't matter - so that you get a sense of what happens at 1/250s, 1/500s, etc. I've never shot motorsports so I'm not sure what aperture I'd use. I'd probably start around f/8 or f/11 if I could keep the ISO low, just because that's not a bad place to start. Better to fix the ISO to 200, because if you let the camera adjust both the aperture and the ISO, well, you don't learn as much because it's too confusing when the camera is controlling two of the three main variables. But the great thing about digital photography is, you can throw hundreds of photos away and it costs you NOTHING. Stand on the street corner and photograph ordinary cars as they drive by, with different settings and see what develops (as we used to say).

K100D is a wonderful camera and you'll have a lot of fun with it. Congrats on your purchase.

Will